Kryptonite
by therewassnow
Summary: Finn is the school loser and Rachel Berry is the It girl. When Rachel needs tutoring in math, the teacher pairs her up with Finn. It leads them on a journey that neither one would have expected. AU. Rating will go up in later chapters.
1. Prologue: New York, New York

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Glee nor do I own the characters, although I suppose that the 'verse' that they will be immersed in is mine.

**Author's note: **This is a heavily AU story. It means that character personalities are not the same as in the show, but at the core, there will still be some elements of Finn and some elements of Rachel in there, but please do not come to me saying that this is not how they act on the show. That's why it's AU. Please R&R. The other chapters will be longer, don't worry, this is just kind of a set up.

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><p>The night is, in a word, perfect. They are lying there together on the balcony of their apartment. The lounge chair they've set up rests at the most awkward angle, but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters except for the way they are there, curled up under a blanket even though it's the month of July and it feels like a sauna out. They're watching the New York traffic, all the hustle and bustle, and they are probably the most silent people in all of New York at that moment. Too silent for New York, perhaps. The beeping of taxi cabs and the shouts of their angered drivers seem so far away from thirty floors up, yet so close. Where they are, it's more of a dull whimper, but the sounds are placating, soothing, even.<p>

They've really become New Yorkers, minus the accents. Those are still entirely from Lima, but some things never change. And their vegetables are still fried, because eating them raw goes against the very core of their being. Or perhaps his being, but it's a custom she's learned to deal with, since what's important to him is important to her. He made her feel special, loved, frying their carrots and string beans is the least that she can do for him. That is, when she's home to make dinner anyways. Shows have started at night now, so she's away from home until 11pm five nights a week. She worries that that's too much, but he insists that it's fine. This is the life she deserves, so long as they stay like this when she comes home, everything will be fine.

He strokes her stomach softly with his thumb, brushing it over her skin under her top. She stirs a little and she wonders if the child can feel that yet, if it realizes that he's brushing his thumb back and forth because he loves her. They've already decided on a name, Laura, after her first agent, the one who landed her her first job that has sent her on the crazy path to broadway stardom. She's like family now. She comes over unannounced, at all the worst moments possible, but neither of them mind. When they're together, nothing ever really seems to matter.

He pushes her hair to the side with his free hand and trails kisses along her neck and shoulder. They're not a suggestion, though he'd never object, they simply are what they are – kisses. She knows that and she snuggles against him more. They're both too warm to be cuddled this close, but they need to be near each other. It's a need that never goes away. Their life has been riddled with problems, with mistakes, but New York was a chance to start over, to fix the all those errors. Well, most of them. Some mistakes are with you for life, but those are the ones you learn from, and they were the ones that led them to be where they were. Nothing would have happened the way that it did if it wasn't for those mistakes. "Did you think we would end up here?" he asks, resting his chin on her shoulder, his voice barely above a whisper. It sounds odd against the backdrop of sounds, so much louder and so much more powerful.

She takes a moment before answering, placing her hand over his as she closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Considering that you were the school loser and I was the stunning young ingenue of Mckinley High that everyone was rooting for, no, I didn't. But i'm glad this is the way it turned out."

That's all he really needed to hear.


	2. Frankenteen

**Author's Note: **Thanks to everyone for their kind reviews! Please continue R&R'ing.

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><p>When Rachel Berry walks through the halls of McKinley High, she is the type of girl that everyone notices. She walks with an heir of confidence, with her hands on her hips, her back perfectly straight, her chin held high, and her hair bouncing in that way that all teen movies like to focus on for at least five seconds when they are introducing their protagonist. Think Olive Penderghast in <em>Easy A<em>.

But Rachel Berry, unlike Olive Penderghast, is not at the bottom of the shit heap known as high school. She is at the top, she is the queen. Even Regina George would be threatened. But like Regina George, she has her evil henchwomen, the girls she never goes anywhere without. Her best friend, Quinn Fabray, captain of the cheerleading squad and resident second bitch, Santana Lopez, the feisty Latina from Lima Heights (which is on the wrong side of the tracks), and Brittany Pierce, who thinks that the square root of four is rainbows, but knows a hell of a lot about cat diseases.

When they walk down the halls, people part like the Red Sea. They walk together about ninety percent of the time, but it's clear that Rachel is the leader. She walks no less than four steps in front of the others, so she gives all the boys a chance to admire the front _and_ the back of everything that she has to offer well ahead of her friends, so they can be reminded of how woefully inadequate they are in comparison to her.

It's probably not much of a surprise, then, that she has a reputation for being somewhat of a diva, and it's probably even less surprising that she has her sights set on seeing her name in lights and her face plastered on billboards all around New York City. One time, she was an extra on One Tree Hill during McKinley spring break and Sophia Bush told her that she was _totally_ pretty.

And, as if that wasn't enough, she's smart to boot. An honor roll student, well… except for in math. All the numbers, she just doesn't get it, and frankly, she thinks that it's a little unimportant anyways. She can use a calculator to count out her annual wages once she's a Tony winning Broadway star anyways, or she can pay someone to do the number crunching for her. It's not like she's not going to make it. She won her first singing competition when she was three months old.

But, her daddies have threatened to nix her spring break trip to the Dominican Republic for her and the girls if she doesn't up her grades in math, and when leaning over Mr. Kranbrooke's desk while trying to re-negotiate a grade didn't work, she had no choice but to sign up for tutoring. Which is how she found herself on the way to the library to meet Finn Hudson, some kid that honestly, she had never heard of before, even though he was supposed to be in like all her classes or something.

She's twenty minutes late, but of course, she plans that on purpose. She's Rachel Berry, if she wants to make this Finn kid wait six hours for her, she will. Just because she can. But she's in a good mood, so she shows up as close to on time as she possibly can. And actually, she would have showed up on time if it weren't for the fact that her dearest Noah had showed up with the most lovely heart necklace for her from Jarrod's, and of course, she had to _thank_ him properly. Her head was going to hurt from having accidentally hit the steering wheel for a while, but it was worth it. Noah Puckerman was _always_ worth it. Or at least on the days when he brought her expensive presents.

"Hello," she announced, seemingly unaware of the fact that she was in a _library_, where silence was usually the order of business. "I'm looking for Finn Hudson?"

Looking around the library, Rachel cocked her head to the side as someone she now _definitely_ recognized gave her a feeble wave from the back table. Everyone was looking at her all offended like she'd broken some kind of rule, but seriously, she was just trying to find her tutoring partner. What was so wrong about that?

Now that she saw who it was though, she kind of wished that she was still living in her ignorant bubble of bliss. "Frankenteen?" she whispered, as she approached the table. "Clearly there's been some kind of mistake. Mr. Kranbrooke would never set me up for tutoring with someone who looks like he could be part of the Adams Family while simultaneously running for the role of Clark Kent in the undoubtedly overly hyped remake of _Superman_," she sneered.

Her good mood was _so_ gone. Seriously, Frankenteen was like the school's biggest loser. He wore these nerd glasses which looked like they came from 1984 and he dressed in a trench coat every time that it rained. It wasn't even Burberry! Ugh, this was a disaster.

"Um, sorry to disappoint you, but there's no mistake. I mean, I'm the best person in class and Mr. Kranbrooke said you're failing so-"

"Shh! Not so loud," Rachel hissed. How _dare_ he say something in an attempt to make her look stupid. So, she was having difficulty in this one class. She had straight As in everything else and everyone knew that math wasn't important in real life anyways.

"Mr. Kranbrooke said you could use some _help_," he clarified. "I know that you know that I'm smart because your boyfriend and his evil group of Neanderthals like to make my life hell on pretty much a daily basis because I happen to be good at this whole 'school' thing, so if you're looking for a tutor, honestly, you're not going to find someone better than me."

"Ugh, whatever. But if you tell anyone about this, I'll make Noah seem like a walk in the park compared to what your social suicide will be like," she threatened, glaring at him as he opened up her math textbook.

"So, did you understand what we were doing today with trigonometric functions?" he asked, flipping to the page in the textbook that they'd been looking at as he adjusted his glasses on his nose. Honestly, Rachel didn't have a clue as to what trigonometry was, or why sin was pronounced as sign when clearly that was not how it was spelled. And tan was supposed to be something you got at the salon, not something that could be graphed.

"Could you be more condescending?" was Rachel's reply to his question. "I mean, why would you just assume that I wouldn't know. Just because I'm having a little trouble doesn't mean that I'm totally lost and frankly you should watch your tone. I _am_ Rachel Berry, after all."

"I'm sorry," Finn mumbled, shaking his head. "I wasn't trying to be condescending I was just trying to figure out where we should start, but I guess trying to be helpful is a bad thing. Won't make that mistake again."

"This was a terrible idea. Clearly, if we can't even agree on the simplest of things, I'm not going to learn anything. I will just have my fathers pay for a private tutor, someone with _real_ skills, who can teach me the intricacies of mathematics _without_ being rude," Rachel huffed, standing up as she failed to see who was really being the rude one.

"Whatever," Finn mumbled, pushing his glasses up on his nose again. "Have a nice rest of the day, Rachel," he added, to which she did not reply. Instead, she simply stormed out of the library looking like someone had just committed the biggest offense against her.

In her mind, that was actually true. How _dare_ he try and mock her, or insinuate that she was dumb. She was Rachel Berry! She would not stand for this! Oh no, not at all.


End file.
